Where should we spend our time?

Philosophy Forums Society, Government, and Economics
1

Hey all-

I’m a college student, and so of course the pressure to decide on a course in life is pretty intense now.

As a person who has spent considerable amounts of time in other countries and has witnessed terrible situations, I wonder: what is worth spending my time doing?
Is all suffering equal? Is all suffering worth tending to?

It seems that some of the brightest people head to medicine. Is it because they believe that this is the surest way to make a difference?

Plenty of people go into the humanities. Plenty become professors and write books - even best-selling books. How much does talking accomplish? Is it endless and worthless? Is knowledge really power, or is it sometimes an indulgence? I wonder how we can know.

Is it unethical to spend one’s time tending to mental illness that is brought about by having the privilege to have time to develop a mental illness to begin with in our affluent society, while there are others dying of famine?

I feel my above thoughts are too linear and that I need someone to help me re-think.

Sometimes I just get so overwhelmed with the amount of suffering around me, and I don’t know where to begin. I want to save the world, like a child.

2

Hey Bextehude,

I don’t know why no-one replied to you yet, I liked your post a lot. You raise interesting questions. Honestly, no-one can tell.

The first thing to realize is that you can really do what you want.
The second thing is that it is very hard to know what you want.

You should spend some time reflecting on it. Not only now, but later too. Re-evaluate.

Plato would say this process is knowing yourself,
Sartre would say it is making yourself.

It doesn’t really matter what you call it. The point is achieving inner congruence and balance.

This will not only help you achieve whatever you feel is important, it will make you a better person at whatever you do.

Because whatever you do, do it well, aigh’t? I mean, fart around if you want to, but by doing it well will make you happier.

I’m not saying happiness is the point of it all. But you will have to admit, it feels good.

As to what specifically you should do, I suggest you put yourself in a situation in life that will bring out the best in you.

3

This business of choosing a major should really start in hs, imo, and could be based on any number of personality tests, if they’re correctly interpreted. Given an initial reading and not much real thought about it, I’d say you’re obviously a people person. My first response, therefore, was sociology, but I’m leery of the -ologies because they may not turn out to be what you think they are. Aren’t the first two years of undergrad work supposed to be liberal–designed to let you get your feet wet before you decide on your future?

You might want to look into political science–or not–up to you.

Do you plan going on to graduate school? This also has a lot to do with your choices.

Welcome to ILP, by the way. Good to have you here.